


The Best Christmas Present (Is You)

by foreverreadingbeautifulbooks



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Featuring, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Jon Snow is Not a Stark, Jon and Sansa being so soft with each other, Minor Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, and family time with all the hilarious Starklings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:21:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21703654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverreadingbeautifulbooks/pseuds/foreverreadingbeautifulbooks
Summary: Every year the Starks and honorary Starks spent the week of Christmas in the most northern of the lodges they owned. No guests were allowed to visit the lodge during that week and it was the one time a year where no one in their family was allowed to work. Everyone hung out, played in the snow, skied, baked, ate lots of food, and simply enjoyed being together. It was refreshing to spend so much time with her family since she felt like she’d barely seen them this last year. But, if Sansa was honest, after five days of hanging out with them nonstop, she’d been looking forward to spending a little bit of time by herself. Every year on Christmas Eve, while her mom and dad picked out the tree, Bran would play chess with their neighbor’s son, Lyanna - who was notorious for buying gifts at the last minute - went shopping, Arya and the rest of the boys would challenge each other to skiing contests, and Sansa would take that opportunity to have her own private holiday celebration indoors. She would warm up some hot chocolate, turn up her Christmas playlist, and snuggle down in some blankets to wrap all of her Christmas presents.But not this year. This year she was stuck with Jon Snow and his broken ankle.
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Comments: 18
Kudos: 54
Collections: Jonsa Holidays 2019





	The Best Christmas Present (Is You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zarahjoyce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarahjoyce/gifts).



The allure of her Christmas routine was so strong that Sansa had to bite back a sigh as she glanced out of the kitchen and stared at the black curls poking up above the couch cushions that indicated that the moody young man they belonged to was still seated across from her Christmas setup.

Every year the Starks and honorary Starks spent the week of Christmas in the most northern of the lodges they owned. No guests were allowed to visit the lodge during that week and it was the one time a year where no one in their family was allowed to work. Everyone hung out, played in the snow, skied, baked, ate lots of food, and simply enjoyed being together.It was refreshing to spend so much time with her family since she felt like she’d barely seen them this last year. But, if Sansa was honest, after five days of hanging out with them nonstop, she’d been looking forward to spending a little bit of time by herself. Every year on Christmas Eve, while her mom and dad picked out the tree, Bran would play chess with their neighbor’s son, Lyanna - who was notorious for buying gifts at the last minute - went shopping, Arya and the rest of the boys would challenge each other to skiing contests, and Sansa would take that opportunity to have her own private holiday celebration indoors. She would warm up some hot chocolate, turn up her Christmas playlist, and snuggle down in some blankets to wrap all of her Christmas presents.

But not this year. This year she was stuck with Jon Snow and his broken ankle.

“I’m sorry you weren’t able to go skiing,” Sansa told him as she walked into the living room carrying mugs of hot chocolate for each of them. She had spent the morning helping her mother bake Christmas cookies and when she’d realized Jon had settled himself on the couch with a book, she’d spent most of the afternoon avoiding him by cleaning the kitchen and writing Christmas cards in her bedroom. However, despite all her delays, he had remained in the living room for the last several hours.She couldn’t think of a way to remove the box she’d placed in there that morning without making it very clear she was avoiding him and she needed to start her wrapping now if she was going to have the slightest chance of getting it done before her siblings came home. So eventually Sansa had decided to suck it up, although there was one concession she hadn’t been willing to make. If she couldn’t have the alone time she was longing for, she was determined to at least enjoy a part of her Christmas tradition - namely, the hot chocolate. “It sucks that you’re stuck spending the day with me instead.” She started arranging her box of presents and pulled out the wrapping paper and bows to set them on the table.

Jon smiled in thanks as he set down his book and took a sip from the mug she had brought for him. “I mean, I did want to go skiing, but it doesn’t suck.”

“It might by the time you’ve listened to my Christmas playlist fifteen times,” Sansa said with a smirk. “Arya claims that a few years ago I killed the holidays for her by singing along to All I Want for Christmas Is You too many times.”

Jon laughed a deep rumbling laugh and Sansa had to fight the urge to fan herself at the sound of it. Between her internship in France over her last Christmas break and his Christmas trip to Alaska with his mom two years ago, she hadn't seen him since she'd started university and he'd gotten so much hotter in the last few years. “My mom listens to that song on repeat every year so I'm used to it,” he told her.

Sansa laughed at his dry tone. “Seriously though,” she said, glanced back down to her presents and selecting the dagger she’d picked out for Arya to begin wrapping it. “I am sorry you couldn’t spend the day doing something you liked.”

“I like spending time with you, Sansa,” Jon said.

“Really?” she asked in surprise. Instantly she knew it was the wrong thing to say when his brows knit together in confusion.

“Is that really a question?” Jon asked. His tone seemed to indicate yet another; Do you really believe that?

Sansa glanced down at her hands. She wished she hadn’t even brought it up. “I mean...um...it's just-” she fumbled over her words as she played with the string of her sweatshirt- “you used to frown whenever I walked into the room when we were in high school. I started letting you and Robb hang out alone because it seemed like you hated me,” she finished in a rush as she glanced up at him and immediately looked down at her wrapping again so she wouldn’t have to focus on his shocked expression.

The room was entirely silent after her confession and she finally glanced up to see that Jon looked as embarrassed as she felt. He groaned as he dropped his head into his hands. “And here I thought it was so obvious that my feelings made you uncomfortable.”

“What are you talking about?” Sansa asked in surprise. Her heart was beating so erratically in her chest that she was surprised Jon hadn’t already suggested driving her to the hospital so the doctors could take a look at her treacherous body’s heart palpitations.

Jon gave her an embarrassed grimace as he admitted, “I had a huge crush on you. I was too scared to tell you at the time and I thought when you stopped hanging out with us that you knew and didn’t feel the same way.”

“Why would you be scared to tell me?” Sansa couldn’t help but ask.

Jon looked at her like it was the craziest question she’d ever asked. “Because you’re perfect,” he said softly.

Sansa shook her head at the irony, “I felt the same way about you,” she whispered back. “If only one of us had been brave enough to tell the other.” She looked down and focused on the cutting a piece of wrapping paper to fit the book on birdwatchingshe’d picked out for Bran. As she started folding the paper around the book, she was keenly aware of Jon shifting from his spot on the couch to settle on the floor next to her. He put a pillow under the cast on his right ankle and then picked up the roll of tape and started handing her pieces as she needed them.A part of her wondered if he could feel her heartbeat every time their fingers brushed, but mostly she didn’t care if he saw how much he was affecting her because she was breathless at the way he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of her while they wrapped all her gifts together in comfortable silence. Soon there was a large pile of presents in front of them, and only Jon’s was still at the bottom of the box she'd been storing them in.

“Close your eyes,” she told him. “I still need to wrap your gift.”

Jon rolled his eyes playfully and then obliged her by leaning back against the couch and closing them. She carefully wrapped the present she'd bought for him and set it on the table. Then she looked over at Jon, feeling a little short of breath as she enjoyed this opportunity to observe all the changes he’d undergone in the past few years. Since she wasn’t blind, she’d noted some of them before now, but she hadn’t had an opportunity to check him out like this because in the past week she’d only spent time with him when her family was around. He’d clearly been going to the gym because the biceps peeking out of the sleeves of his shirt were very toned. Catching herself wondering what the muscles under his shirt looked like, Sansa smirked as she thought of how Arya would tease her for being so thirsty since part of her was dying to yank that shirt over his head and find out. Looking up, she found herself longing to run a hand through his hair and pull his gorgeous curls from the bun that was currently holding them in place. She glanced down a little further and found herself drawn toward the small smile that graced his lips. Slowly she leaned forward and pressed her lips softly against his, feeling a tingle of electricity between them as their lips met.

When Sansa leaned back, she couldn’t help but giggle a little at the flabbergasted expression on Jon’s face. The sound of her laughter seemed to jolt him back to reality and he grinned ferociously back at her before surging forward to claim her mouth with his own, cutting her giggle short and turning it into a gasp. The electricity between them increased a hundredfold and Sansa found her arms wrapping around Jon as she opened her mouth and allowed his tongue entrance. She moaned against his mouth as his hands made their way up and one began running through her hair while the thumb of his other rubbed circles on her neck. Sansa reached her hand up towards Jon’s curls-

“SANSA! JON!” Arya shouted as she banged the front door open in the other room. Sansa pulled back in surprise so quickly that she banged her elbow against the coffee table. Jon reached out to steady her and she gave him a small, shy smile as she ran a hand quickly through her hair to fix it and then engrossed herself with tying bows on presents before Arya made it to the living room. Meanwhile Jon returned her smile before picking up his book in one hand and his mug of hot chocolate in the other as he pretended to be completely absorbed with both.

“Oh,” Arya said, rounding the corner, “Here you guys are!”

“Here we are,” Sansa said, looking up at her sister. “How were the slopes?”

“Amazing!” Arya told them. “I got Gendry to try out skiing and he must have failed the beginner’s class on the bunny hill this morning because when I took him on a run this afternoon, he kept barely going ten feet because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop. So I finally told him he needed to just go and that he could always sit down if he needed to stop.” She cackled as she told them, “Clearly I didn’t explain the execution of the _extremely difficult_ maneuver of stopping by sitting in the snow thoroughly enough. When he started picking up speed on the last hill of that run, the dumbass sat down ON HIS SKIS!!! Obviously instead of stopping, he picked up speed and rode like that all the way to the bottom like that, screaming his head off the entire time.”

Jon burst out laughing and Sansa tried and failed to contain her giggles as the irate face of Arya's boyfriend appeared around the corner.

“You promised not to tell!” Gendry accused Arya.

She snorted. “Someone else would have if I didn’t and it was waaaaay to hilarious of a story not to share.”Fluttering her eyelashes up at him, she said, “I’ll get Sansa to make you some hot chocolate to make it up to you."

Gendry rolled his eyes and smirked down at her. “You’re incorrigible.”

She grinned back at him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Tell you what, I’ll also let you take the first shower so you can have some hot water before the boys use it all up.”

Laughing, Gendry gave her a playful swat as he turned to head up the stairs. “Fine,” he called over his shoulder.

Arya smirked and waited till he was out of the room before turning back to Jon and Sansa. “You really would have heard it from someone else if I hadn’t said anything. Robb and Theon fell over laughing and I thought Rickon was going to pee his pants he cracked up so hard. If only I’d managed to catch it on video; that would have gone viral in minutes!”

She punched Jon in the shoulder before flopping down on the couch and starting to pull off her snow gloves and jacket. “Sorry you had to miss it!”

“That’s okay,” he said softly, glancing over at Sansa with a small smile. “I had a good time here.”

Arya didn’t seem to register the comment as she began rambling about the black diamond runs she’d gone on that morning, but Sansa blushed and excused herself to make hot chocolate as she heard her brothers and Theon stomping through the door. Her parents and Bran came home a few minutes later and Lyanna followed shortly thereafter so the next few hours were a whirlwind of decorating the tree with her family and then helping her mother to prepare dinner for everyone.

Eventually they all sat at the table and Arya entertained them with the story of Gendry’s skiing failure while Rickon reenacted it. Sansa laughed at their antics, but she had spent most of dinner preoccupied with the fact that Jon was seated right next to her. She was very aware of his every movement and could practically feel the electricity every time their hands brushed each other as they passed dishes around the table. Although she didn’t allow herself to look over at him so as not to draw any attention to them, part of her longed to drag him into another room and pick up where they’d left off earlier.

“Don’t worry!” Robb exclaimed helpfully as he clapped Gendry on the back. “We’ll turn you into a regular Michelle Kwan yet.”

Arya groaned and buried her face in her hands as Theon and Sansa burst out laughing.

“Michelle Kwan is a figure skater!” Theon cried as he reined in his laughter.

At the same time, Sansa gasped for breath through her laughter and told him, “I think you mean Lindsey Vonn!”

They high-fived each other across the table before glaring down at Robb, which set the rest of the family to laughing.

“Even I knew that,” Arya informed Robb disdainfully.

“Theon and Sansa love watching the Olympics,” Jon explained to Gendry who looked baffled by this entire exchange.

Arya rolled her eyes at Jon, “Understatement of the year.” She turned to Gendry and informed him, “They’ll stay up all night to watch certain events depending on when their favorites are on the air and usually only emerge from the house during those weeks if they have to go to work, taping any important events they might miss during that time.”

Rickon nodded. “I usually turn off the notifications on our chat because the two of them blow itup with texts about the events and medalists.”

Sansa gasped playfully, “My own brother! How could you betray my trust like this and not show the proper respect for this sacred event?” She glanced around the table in mock outrage when she realized none of the rest of them had spoken up, “Do you all do this?!”

“No offense, you guys,” Robb said, laughing. “But you two do go a bit overboard.”

“If it makes you feel any better,” Bran said with a smirk. “I do the same thing when Robb’s on spring break because I don’t want a million notifications about his inability to talk to hot girls.”

“As if anyone ever needed to be notified of that,” Jon said dryly.

The entire table burst into such loud laughter that Robb’s outraged protests could barely be heard over the din.

While everyone was laughing, Jon leaned over and murmured quietly to Sansa, “I like your Olympic enthusiasm.”

Sansa glanced over and gave him a warm smile, forcing herself to drag her eyes back to her plate as her family started to settle down before they caught her staring at Jon.

Later that evening, Sansa found herself lying in bed thinking back to all the moments she’d shared with Jon today. She’d spent the morning wishing her siblings were around so she wouldn’t have to endure so much time alone with him and most of the evening longing for the reverse. Pressing her fingers to her lips as the memory of their kisses came flooding back to her, she decided to throw caution to the wind.

Padding quietly down the stairs, she crept over to the guest bedroom that was Jon’s. He'd never claimed it, but all the rest of the Starks referred it as such he always stayed there. And over the years it had become even more his room as his favorite blanket and pillow graced the bed, his ski gear was stored in the top of that closet, and the walls had been painted his favorite shade of blue. Sansa knocked on the door and felt a little breathless at the sweet smile Jon gave her when he opened it.

“Hey,” she said shyly.

“Hi,” he said, pushing the door open wider to allow her space to enter if she wished.

“I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes, if that’s okay.” Sansa said, stepping into the room.

“Of course,” Jon said. He swallowed visibly and appeared at a loss for words so Sansa decided she’d better just spit it out and say what she came to say.

Plucking up her courage, Sansa told him, “I like you, Jon. I didn’t want to have this talk in front of my siblings in case you weren’t feeling the same way, but I’d also like to bewith you.”

Jon smiled at her and stepped in closer. “I’d like that too,” he said softly, leaning down to press a light kiss against her lips.

She placed both hands against his chest and gently smiled up at him as she slowly pushed them apart. “Okay,” she agreed breathlessly. Her heart felt full enough to burst. “Well on that note, I’m going to head to bed before we start to make out.” She grinned up at him, “Not that I’d object to that, of course, but I would object to Theon banging on the door in five minutes and demanding to know what all the moaning was about.”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Jon agreed, chuckling. “Arya will be waking us up at the crack of dawn to open presents anyway.”

“Exactly,” Sansa said. “So we should get some sleep before then.”

“Although I don’t really care what I get tomorrow,” Jon said, pressing their foreheads together so that his lips were almost touching hers. Sansa shivered at the tension building between them as he whispered, “You already gave me the best present anyone's ever received.” As he leaned closer and kissed her once again, Sansa couldn’t help but disagree. She was definitely receiving the best present from him.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this little bit of Christmas fluffiness! It was partially inspired by the Christmas vibe of [this gorgeous moodboard](https://elizadusku.tumblr.com/post/168828113588/au-meme-the-starks-are-known-for-their-line-of). Merry Christmas to everyone, but particularly to zarahjoyce! <3
> 
> Just a fun fact for my readers, that skiing story is 100% true and I have rarely laughed harder in my life than when I watched my mom sit down on her skis (obviously not understanding the consequences) and ride them all the way to the bottom of the hill, screaming in protest all the while. I doubt it will come as a shock to anyone that she spent every family ski trip after that enjoying the warmth and safety of the lodge while the rest of us skied. Lol


End file.
